(Bloomberg) — Vladimir Putin set the stage to stay on as Russia’s president for potentially another 16 years, reversing his past opposition to scrapping term limits so that he — and only he — can continue to rule the country.
“In principle, this option may be possible but on one condition — that Russia’s Constitutional Court give an official ruling that such an amendment wouldn’t run counter to the fundamental provisions of the constitution,” Putin said Tuesday in an unscheduled speech before the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. He spoke in response to an earlier surprise appeal by ruling United Russia lawmakers for him to stay on as president beyond the end of his current term in 2024.
Already the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Putin has previously repeatedly rejected the idea of scrapping term limits, including as recently as last week. His supporters, though, argue that constitutional changes currently being adopted mean that Putin’s existing terms shouldn’t count under the country’s new basic law.
The Constitutional Court ruling — along with a national vote scheduled for April 22 in support of the plan that Putin also set as a condition — is all but certain to go the Kremlin’s way in Russia’s tightly-controlled political system. It opens the way for Putin, 67, to serve as many as two more six-year terms that would take his rule potentially to 2036, when he would be 84.
Noting that the U.S. imposed presidential term limits only in 1951 — “that’s practically yesterday in historical terms” — Putin said Russia was still strengthening its political system after the turmoil that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
In such times, “stability is probably more important and should be the priority,” he said. Once the country has become stronger, rotation of leaders “takes priority,” he added, without specifying when that would be.
“Putin is achieving his main goal of staving off the day when he will have to give up power,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, head of R.Politik, a political consultancy. “He wants to get the elites and society used to the idea that he may stay on.”
The president came to the Duma after Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suspended debates on the Kremlin’s constitutional amendments, saying lawmakers wanted to consult Putin on lifting the term limit. Earlier, Valentina Tereshkova, a respected United Russia lawmaker who was also the first woman in space, had urged support for the proposal, saying “Putin needs to be there — in case something goes wrong.”
The president’s reversal of his opposition to changing term limits came as markets have been roiled by the coronavirus outbreak and the oil-price war that followed last week’s collapse of the accord on output cuts between Russia and OPEC states led by Saudi Arabia. Putin spoke days after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman consolidated his grip on power with an unprecedented crackdown by security forces who arrested senior princes and military officials.
Retain Control
The overhaul to Russia’s 1993 constitution, announced in January, was widely seen as an effort to create options for Putin to retain control even after he steps down as president. But until Tuesday’s announcement, confusion surrounded his plans as initial expectations faded that the presidency would be weakened by moves to bolster the powers of parliament and the State Council, an advisory body that Putin heads.
The decision to turn to the Constitutional Court also follows unsuccessful Kremlin efforts to pressure neighboring Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to agree to merge his country with Russia, allowing Putin to sidestep term limits as head of the new unified state.
“He doesn’t want to become a lame duck,” said Evgeny Minchenko, a Moscow political consultant. While Putin’s likely to remain in office, the constitutional changes still “leave a lot of room for maneuver and there could be other moves.”
The upheaval in oil markets sent the ruble and Russian stocks tumbling, adding to the Kremlin’s challenges in seeking to boost stagnant living standards with a major spending program ahead of scheduled parliamentary elections in September 2021.
Putin, who has ruled Russia since 2000, said he remained opposed to lifting term limits completely. He also rejected an earlier proposal from ruling-party lawmakers to call early parliamentary elections once the constitutional amendments have passed.
(Updates with Putin comments in fifth paragraph, analyst in seventh)
–With assistance from Ilya Arkhipov and Stepan Kravchenko.
To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at [email protected];Andrey Biryukov in Moscow at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at [email protected], Tony Halpin
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